> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.getrivet.ca/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Practitioner controls
> Spacebar start and stop, speed changes mid-set, mid-session reconfigure, and the deliberate clinical choice not to auto-advance between sets.
The EMDR Workspace gives you exactly the controls you need to drive the
session from the keyboard, the trackpad, or your phone. Nothing more,
nothing less.
## Starting a set
Three ways to start the first set:
1. **Configure modal → Start Set 1** — sets the configuration and starts
the set in one tap.
2. **Spacebar** — once the Workspace is mounted and you've acknowledged the
photosensitive epilepsy warning, pressing **Space** starts or stops the
current set.
3. **Corner badge** — a small floating control in the corner of the
screen. Tap to start, tap to stop. This is the universal control —
works on mobile, on desktop, with or without a keyboard.
Pressing **Space** is a no-op until you've explicitly opted into EMDR for
the session via the toolbar button. This is intentional — it prevents a
stray spacebar from triggering BLS during a non-EMDR session.
The spacebar handler is input-aware. If your cursor is in a text field,
Space behaves normally (typing a space). It only catches Space when no
text field is focused.
## Stopping a set
Three ways to stop a set before its countdown reaches zero:
1. **Spacebar** — same key, toggles to stop.
2. **Corner badge** — same control, now showing "Stop" with a pulsing
countdown.
3. **End set** button on the practitioner overlay.
When the set ends — either because you stopped it or the countdown ran out
— the Workspace automatically transitions to the **between-sets** card to
capture the SUDS.
## Between-sets advancement
This is where Rivet deliberately does **less** than a generic-timer tool.
**Rivet does not auto-advance between sets.** After a set ends and you
capture the SUDS, the next set does not begin automatically when you tap
Continue. The Workspace returns to the running state with the practitioner
overlay re-mounted, but the BLS itself is **stopped**. You start the next
set explicitly — Space, badge, or Start.
This is a clinical decision, not a missing feature. EMDR is not a
fixed-interval protocol. The decision to continue, to adjust the rate, to
swap to a different dual-task category, to switch a modality off, or to
move into closure — that decision is made between every set, not on a
timer. Auto-advance would force the protocol into a pace the clinical work
doesn't respect.
If you want to run 4 back-to-back sets with no decisions in between, set
the count to 4 and start each one explicitly. That's 4 spacebar taps, or 4
badge taps, with the between-sets card between each. Fast for an experienced
practitioner. Right for the clinical work.
## Adjusting speed and volume during a set
You don't have to stop a set to change the pace. While BLS is running, a
small speed stepper and volume slider sit on your overlay — tap **−** or
**+** to nudge the speed in small steps, or drag the volume slider. Both
take effect immediately, with no restart and no gap in the set.
The picture, the sound and any paired phone all re-converge on the next
pass, so you won't hear the tone wander off the movement while the new pace
settles. See [One movement, not three](/emdr/staying-in-sync).
The speed stepper stops at 2 movements per second. Published EMDR protocols
sit below that, and faster flicker carries photosensitivity risk — which is
the reason to trust the control rather than watch it. Move it freely inside
the range; you can't push past the ceiling from here any more than you can
from the Configure modal.
## Mid-session reconfigure
Open the **EMDR** toolbar button again at any point and the Configure
modal opens — with your current configuration pre-loaded. Change anything:
rate, stimulus, modality, sound, path, backdrop. Hit **Apply changes**
(the primary button changes from "Start Set 1" when the Workspace is
already running).
The new configuration takes effect when the next set starts. The currently
running set, if any, continues with its original configuration to avoid
mid-set jumps.
## If the connection degrades mid-set
**Stop the set yourself.** A set runs its own timer regardless of what the
connection is doing — Rivet will not stop it for you, and it will not
restart it for you either.
So if the video stalls, the audio breaks up, or you lose sight of your
client's face partway through a set, press Space or tap **End set**, get the
connection back, and start the next set when you can see them again.
Stimulation your client is receiving while you can't observe them isn't
stimulation you're running.
This is the one place where the tool leans on you rather than on a rule.
Deciding a connection has degraded far enough to interrupt a set is a
clinical judgement, and a timer isn't in a position to make it.
## Ending the EMDR portion
Two ways to end:
1. Reach your configured set count and let the session arc card render
naturally. Tap **Done** to close the Workspace.
2. Open the host panel and tap **End EMDR** at any point to close out
early.
Closing the EMDR Workspace **does not end the video call**. You return to
the regular video session with the toolbar and your video tiles. The call
ends when you tap End in the call toolbar.
## What's not a control
A few things you might look for and not find:
* **No tempo ramp.** The rate doesn't gradually accelerate over a set —
it runs at the configured rate the entire time. If you want acceleration,
configure a slower rate for the first sets and a faster rate for later
sets via mid-session reconfigure. The **Auto-vary** toggle adds gentle
modulation within bounds but is not a ramp.
* **No A/B preset switching.** You can't save two configurations and
toggle between them. The Workspace remembers your last configuration,
which is the most useful default for the next session.
* **No client-facing controls.** The client has no buttons. They watch the
stimulus, hear the audio, and tell you their SUDS. Nothing on their
screen is interactive during BLS, and none of your side reaches theirs —
not the speed control, not the readouts, not the prompts, not the
ratings, not the session curve.
* **No recording.** There's no recording of the session and nothing
transcribes it.
## Sending a blink cue (Flash mode)
In Flash mode, there's no moving stimulus to start or stop — instead a
**Flash** button sits on your overlay. Tap it whenever you're ready for
the client to blink, and a gentle cue plays on their screen — the
positive-focus text pulses softly and a quiet chime sounds. You're
running the blink sequence verbally; the button is only the signal. See
[Setting up an EMDR session](/emdr/setting-up-an-emdr-session) for how to
configure Flash mode.
## SUDS log
A **View session log** button in the host panel surfaces the SUDS list for
the current session in a scrollable list — useful for reviewing earlier
sets without ending. The list is the same data the Copy button on the
session arc card uses.
## Related articles
The Configure modal walkthrough — every control, every default.
The closing card with the SUDS trajectory and the Copy export.
The first-use warning gate that intercepts Space and Start until
acknowledged.
Why speed changes land cleanly, how a paired phone joins the beat, and
what to do when the connection degrades.